Take Every Scary Step
Written by Girl Scout Alum, Hannah Persick
Growing up, I was a Brownie, Junior, and Cadette Girl Scout. For most of my formative years, I partook in the Girl Scout traditions, such as reciting the Girl Scout Promise and Law, attending weekly meetings, selling cookies, going to camp, and of course, earning badges that required such skills from cooking dishes from other countries to making tie blankets for dogs at the Humane Society.
And throughout my time in Girl Scouts, I never imagined another way of growing up. It was just part of who I was as a child, a part of who my close friends were, and it was our way of living. We were Girl Scouts.
But now, as I sit here writing this article, home from college for the summer interning at my local Girl Scouts Council, I have been wondering more and more about just how much Girl Scouts led me to the place I am today.
I remember when I was younger, I went through a phase many kids go through, and that was the “shy phase.” As a child, I was super outgoing, bubbly, and brave, but somewhere along the way, probably around the time boys start to tease girls about liking the color pink and the point in elementary school when you look down at your princess dress you were so excited to wear to school until you realized no one else was wearing one, I started to enter the shy phase.
And so, when it came time to sell cookies in the dead of winter in freezing cold Wisconsin, instead of dreading the harsh wind and snow outside my door, I was instead nervously awaiting the adults behind neighborhood doors that I would soon have to talk to. But I needed to sell cookies for my troop and myself, so my dad and I strapped on our snow pants, gloves, and hats, and made our way out into the neighborhood.
Was I scared? Yes. Did I still go out? Yes again. And so, I went from door to door, knocking on doors secretly hoping no one would open them, to talking to adults that were much more friendly than I expected, to walking back to my dad with a smile on my face because I just sold three more boxes of Thin Mints. I did it scared, and I was glad I did when I was sporting my new Girl Scout cookie duffle bag I earned.
A little later in my Girl Scouting journey, it was around the time Girl Scouts started to go to camp. Away from home. Without their parents. Now if you’re catching on, this, of course, sounded scary to me. I had never been away from home for more than a one-night sleepover, and now I was going to a 3-day camp in the woods? Seemed like a big step. But a friend from my troop begged me to go and I couldn’t let her brave the outdoors by herself. So, with a way overpacked bag, three stuffed animals, and my friend from my Girl Scout troop, I made my way out to Camp Evelyn.
At camp, I got to swim in the pool, make bracelets, hike in the woods, eat dinner without silverware, sit around the campfire, sleep on the top bunk, and much more. And was I scared sometimes being so far from home? Yes, definitely yes. But could I also not do all these fun things if I had stayed at home? Yes again.
Flashforward to 8th grade year, it was my troop’s last year of Girl Scouts. We were all growing up in different directions, and it was getting harder to coordinate schedules, interests, and commitment. As we approached this end of an era, we decided to have one last hurrah and use our remaining cookie money to take an overnight trip together in Milwaukee. We felt very adult, even though our parents were five steps behind us at every stage, getting our own hotel, going shopping, and eating out at a fancy restaurant. We were bridging from Cadette to some other next level, one that none of us had a name for yet.
And while we were sitting there, in our hotel bathroom, deciding to treat the hotel bathtub like a hot tub, with all of us crammed in there with our brightly colored tankinis on, there was something else on my mind: high school. At that time, I had been deciding whether I should stay at the same 100 person private school I had gone to all my life with the same girls sitting next to me in that bathtub, or if I should go to the bigger, scarier high school where I didn’t know anyone, but I could be anyone and anything I wanted to be. Would I rather be a big fish in small water, like me sitting in that bathtub that night, or a small fish in a bigger pond than I could imagine?
As my last action as a Girl Scout, I made the decision to jump into the the big pond.
And in high school, I acted in plays, I was in show choir, I participated in many clubs, and I met so many new people. And even though every step of the way was scary, I kept walking. And by the time I was applying for scholarships and colleges, I chose to go to Syracuse University, 12 hours away from home, majoring in Television, Radio, and Film, an industry I was just beginning to be introduced to, and I went scared.
And now, I am going to be a Junior at Syracuse University, with the same major and an added Creative Writing minor, and am now preparing to be the Head of Content Creation for a college television show, am in the middle of my duties as a Lead Peer Advisor that welcomes incoming freshmen, and am nearing the end of my summer Communications Internship here at Girl Scouts of Manitou Council. And what I’m here to say is I’m still scared, quite often, on a daily basis. Honestly, a part of you will always be scared. But I have never let that stop me. Growing up, Girl Scouts didn’t let it stop me and now that I am an alum, I never let it stop me now.
